Graveside rapist deemed dangerous offender

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Michele Mandel, QMI Agency Columnist

Apr 3, 2014

, Last Updated: 7:25 AM ET

TORONTO -- She hopes no one will ever suffer at his hands again.

She is Russell Kirkpatrick's final victim, the 61-year-old woman brutally beaten and sexually assaulted in Pine Hills Cemetery four years ago as she lay flowers on her mother's grave, choked unconscious only to wake hours later and left to crawl naked for five kilometres for help.

Her attacker deserves to be locked away -- and now he will be.

Even during his tearful plea Wednesday not to be declared a dangerous offender, it was frightening to see how little he understands the pain and suffering he has caused.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I have problems with drugs and alcohol."

And then his bizarre excuse: "I thought she was a prostitute who ripped me off," he said, as if that would make it OK.

Instead, he was just sealing his fate.

Justice John McMahon saw through it all for what it was, yet another attempt to deflect responsibility, yet another shocking lack of insight from the violent sexual predator who will now be imprisoned indefinitely until he can satisfy the parole board that he deserves to get out.

And we are all the safer for it.

While the 48-year-old Kirkpatrick repeatedly interjected his objections, McMahon declared him a dangerous offender and gave him an "indeterminate" sentence with no statutory release date. Instead, he can apply for full parole in 2017 -- seven years after the vicious cemetery attack of July 12, 2010 -- and then every two years thereafter.

"She's very relieved to know her attacker, who we now know assaulted another woman before her, has now been declared a dangerous offender," said her lawyer, Elizabeth Grace. "She doesn't wish anyone else to go through what she did.

"And she wants to express her sincere thanks for the outpouring of support she has received from members of the public since this happened, which provides her with ongoing comfort as she continues to struggle with the devastating consequences."